CHAPTER - I

INTRODUCTION

Anita Desai ( b. 1937 ) is one of the foremost novelists writing in

Indian En!~lish today. She has a definitive place in the Indian English

literary canon, having won widespread critical acclaim. In her novels

Desai is chiefly concerned with the essential human predicament. She

portrays with amazing accuracy the inner turmoil and psychic upheavals

of sensitive individuals struggling to eke out an authentic existence in

a seemingly meaningless world ridden with anxiety, angst and alienation.

Desai's existentialist concerns and exploration of the psyche as well

as her intensely individual style, supple and poetic prose, careful attention

to craftsmanship and her use of the important modern techniques of

fiction have added a new depth and dimension to the Indian English

fiction. She is our first 'modern' English novelist in some sense. Since

she appeared on the literary scene, the sensibility of the Indian writer

in English seems to have undergone a transformation, become

modernised, as it were.

Desai has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards both

in India and abroad. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature,

London and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as

a Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge. Her published works include

apart from short stories and children's books, ten major novels. Three ~

of her novels, Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and Fasting,

Feasting (1999) were shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize.

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Honours and awards, however, can hardly reflect the true qualities

of an artist. That Desai is a literary artist of a high order can be easily

understood if we examine her novels carefully and see how the fabric

of her vision is woven through artistic treatment of complex themes

by means of a masterful use of the modern techniques of fiction.

Some of the basic themes that recur in Desai's fiction are alienation,

man-woman relationship, search for an authentic existence, existential

predicament, victimization of the weak, East-West encounter, and the

like. It may be seen that the protagonists in her novels mostly suffer

from a sense of alienation, and consequently from a deep existential

anguish. Exploration of the sensibility is Desai's forte. She excels in

diving deep below the surface of her protagonists to plumb the depths

and illumine the inner world.

In order to put across her themes Desai employs all the important

modern techniques of fiction : stream of consciousness, interior

monologue, symbolic use of evocative imagery, use of Nature in its

twin aspects of good and evil, use of the city as a symbol of evil and

corruption, use of memory as a narrative device, and the like. She often

uses external surroundings as objective correlatives to reveal the psychic

states of the characters.

Her technique is the natural outcome of her preoccupation with

individual psychology combined with the painter's eye. She has a rare

gift of sug~lesting things and an opulent vocabulary. Her vivid awareness

of the external world, her keen power of observation, her sedulous

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attention to apparently trifle details, and above all her remarkable

command of the language have contributed significantly to the

enrichment of her narrative technique as an apt vehicle of her vision.

In all hE!r novels we find a perfect correspondence between the theme

and the technique. The different episodes in her novels are all functional.

These reinforce the theme, bring out the distinctive traits of the char-

acters, and are neatly integrated into the total design of the vision projected.

The vision is basically tragic. There is no bliss of solitude. Her

protagonists are all helplessly alone. They are almost like Lear on the

heath. It is a constricted existence that they lead. They seem to live

in a closed, sequestered limbo of private sufferings. They are all victims

of their circumstances from which they seek release desperately . From

this basically tragic vision of life emerges a thematic cluster whose main

ingredients are interpersonal relations, obsession with death and

violence, psychic disintegration, involvement and withdrawal, conformity

and nonconformity, illusion and disillusionment, and the like.

Let us now attempt to make a brief review of all the novels of Anita

Desai chronologically and examine in passing the dominant strands that

form the fabric of each novel. We shall discuss, for example, the themes,

treatment and techniques employed in different novels.

Desai's maiden novel, Cry, the Peacock is said to have ushered in

the genre of psychological realism in Indian English fiction. It mainly

deals with the theme of alienation and disharmony in husband-wife

relationship. There is an unbridgeable gap between Maya, the

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hypersensitive, emotional, sensuous, young protagonist and her aged

husband Gautama, the practical, cold, overbusy lawyer. They inhabit

two incompatible planes of existence. There are repeated literal and

symbolical references in the novel to Maya's physical as well as emotional

needs being left ungratified. Maya, the darling daughter of her father

was brou~]ht up like a toy princess in a toy world. She expects her

husband to be a doting father-substitute. Naturally, Gautama's indifferent,

no-nonsense attitude hurts her. She feels neglected, alienated and

isolated, killed somewhere within herself. Her childlessness only

accentuatE~s her loneliness and compounds her problems. To make matters

worse, her pet dog Toto dies. This unexpected tragedy so terribly upsets

her that she is completely thrown off her balance. A horrifying sense

of the impending doom overtakes her. The sinister prophecy of an albino

astrologer made in her childhood that either of the spouse will die in

the fourth year of their marriage resurfaces in her mind and continues

to haunt her. This obsessive fear ultimately leads her to kill Gautama

for his cool, callous attitude to life. Finally, she kills herself in a fit

of insanity.

The novel is divided into three parts. Parts One and Three, which

are very brief, are presented in the third-person narrative. Part Two,

which bears the main burden of the novel, is described in the first-

person narrative from Maya's point of view.

Part One of the novel serves as a prologue. It is a kind of 'exposition'

to the unfolding drama of Maya's turbulent life. The death of Toto not
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only focuses the contrasting natures of Maya and Gautama by showing

their reactions to it but also hints at the fractured relationship in this

incompatible couple who progressively drift apart until the relationship

ends violently in death.

This part subtly builds up the atmosphere and the tension,and prepares

us for the final tragedy. Part Two vividly presents through the first-person

narrative the circumstances and factors responsible for Maya's neurotic

behaviour--death of Toto, childlessness, loneliness, non-reciprocation

of feeling between the temperamentally incompatible couple, the sinister

prediction of the albino astrologer, and the like. All these factors combine

to torment Maya and ultimately push her towards insanity and death.

In Part Three the third-person omniscient narrator describes the re-

gression of Maya back to her infantile state after she murders Gautama

and her ulltimate self-killing. This part acts more as an epilogue to Part

Two which forms the core of the novel than anything else. It presents

also an ironic commentary on the world of commonsense in which the

sensitive heroine has no place.

The narrative technique Desai employs in this novel is perfectly in

correspondence with the central theme of husband-wife alienation and

other kindred themes such as clash of illusion and reality, problem of

adjustment, conformity and non-conformity, victimization of the weak,

violence, and death. It is significant that the large middle section of

the novel is rendered in the first person employing the stream-of-

consciousness technique. This helps her to present the origin and growth
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of Maya's predicament with a rare immediacy and intensity. Here the

past and the present)and fantasy and reality are constantly juxtaposed

to give us a peep into Maya's lacerated psyche and ensure our sympathy

for her. Desai's use of memory and nostalgia as a narrative device,

her use of Nature in its twin aspects of good and evil, of the city as

a symbol of evil and corruption, of landscape to objectify emotions in

this novel deserve special attention. Her affinity with Virginia Woolf 1n

these and many respects else has been noted by critics.

Imagery and symbols play an important role in Desai's montage-like

technique. Desai's effusive imagery not only lends rich textural density

to the novel but also vivifies Maya's intense longings and struggles,

hopes and frustrations, fears and obsessions with powerful effects. The

psychology of characters, the events and the setting in this novel coalesce

with the imagery radiating through the narrative. The novelist interweaves

the key images of imprisonment and insanity significantly to present

Maya's pathetic predicament. Some of the images are anticipatory in

nature and have deep symbolic implications. There are significant uses

of animal, insect, lunar, stellar and colour imagery. The images of the

caged animals, prey-and-predator, dust-storm and the central symbol

of the dance of the peacock, in particular, are recurrent and have a

powerful bearing on the themes of the novel. These externalise Maya's

feelings and attitudes, vivify the themes and evoke the mood in a very

poetic manner.

Apart from poetic 1mages and symbols, Desai uses vanous other
 7

linguistic devices to project her essentially tragic vision in this novel.

The high-strung sensitiveness and the neurotic mind of Maya are brought

out in sharp relief through a sensuous and evocative language. The

poetic prose richly makes up for the inadequacies of action and humour

in the novel. Desai freely uses alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme,

onomatopoeia and various other lexical and syntactic devices to

foreground ideas, characterize the speakers and give exactitude to the

themes.

In ordE!r to impart appropriate local colour to the setting and

authenticity to the narrative Desai uses lndianisms-lndian words, imagery,

idiom,myths, rituals as well as syntactic and lexical items-with a

remarkable effect. All these together constitute the fabric of the vision

projected in this novel.

Desai's second novel, Voices in the City with its three protagonists

Nirode, Monisha and Amla, and a multiple perspective is a much more

complex work dealing with existential problems. Alienation, isolation,

loneliness and a quest for an authentic, meaningful existence, however,

continue to be the chief concerns of the novelist. There seems to be

communication gap all around: between husband and wife (Monisha and

Jiban), mother and son (Nirode and his mother), lovers (Amla and Dharma),

friends (Nirode and his friends), the individual and the society (Nirode

and the society of Calcutta), and the like. Here also temperamental

incompatibilities of the characters, their inability to accept limitations

and make compromises .account for dissonance in interpersonal

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relationships and cause problems.

The novel presents a moving account of the spiritual journey of the

protagonists-the three highly sensitive siblings Nirode, Monisha and

Amla-in quest of a meaningful, harmonious existence. They travel through

doubt, frustration and disillusionment; suffer intensely and stumble their

way to solutions of their own. While Monisha seeks release in

self-immolation, Amla and Nirode come to understand and accept their

realities. The novel is remarkable for the powerful portrayal of the city

of Calcutta which wields a considerable disintegrating influence on all

the protagonists. It actually assumes the role of a powerful antagonist

which thwarts the aspirations of the sensitive protagonists.

StructUirally, the novel is divided into four unequal parts: Part One

"Nirode", Part Two "Monisha : Her Diary", Part Three "Amla" and Part

Four "Motl1er". The point of view is mostly that of the omniscient author.

Only Part Two, being an extract from Monisha's diary, is rendered in

the first person. Nirode, Monisha and Amla are all presented as

non-conformist rebels struggling hard to live life on their own terms.

Their problems are largely existential.

In Part One, Desai adopts the stream-of-consciousness technique

to illuminate Nirode's existential dilemmas, his grudges and grievances,

and his futile quest for an authentic existence in Calcutta,"the devil

city" ( 121). He is presented as a nihilist obsessed with failures. He

is a rootless drifter who finds life meaningless and absurd much like

the journey of Sisyphus.

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In Part Two, the diary-technique allows us a peep into Monisha's

miserable married life. The tragedy of husband - wife alienation is re-

enacted here through the Monisha-Jiban tale. Monisha's loveless, barren

conjugal life, and her tormented, lonely life among the in- laws ultimately

force her to choose death as a glorious release from a mean, monotonous

and meaningless death-in-life existence. Both Nirode and Monisha suffer

terribly from lack of love and purpose in life.

Part Three deals with Amla, who comes to Calcutta with a lot of

hope and enthusiasm to work as a commercial artist, but soon becomes

a victim of the dark city. The oppressive atmosphere of the city saps

her vivacity and leaves her disillusioned about life. Her brief affair with

the painter Dharma ends when she knows the truth about him, his neglect

of his wife, and his heartless rejection of his daughter.

Part Four reveals the true picture of the Mother who has been so

far in the background in the consciousness of her children, chiefly as

an object of derision to Nirode for her adulterous affair with Major Chadha.

But when she comes to Calcutta after Monisha's death, Nirode feels

overwhelmed by her awe - inspiring grace and dignity as well as her

supreme detachment. He identifies her with Mother Kali-the goddess

of creation and destruction in an epiphanic vision and tries to come

to grips with the riddle of existence in his own way. Monisha's unnatural

death brings about a reconciliation between the long-alienated mother

and her remaining two children at the end.

Imagery plays a significant role in this novel also. In correspondence

 10

with the temperament of the protagonists, imagery works out quite

effectively in bringing out the negative attitudes and the dead empty

inner world of Nirode and Monisha. Amla's positive attitude and

willingness to learn and compromise also find expression in appropriate

images. The city of Calcutta with its combination of the horrible and

the sublime is given corresponding imagistic juxtaposition. The novel

abounds with images of dirt, squalor, poverty, disease and suffering

with all their sickening, nauseating connotations. These amply reveal

the sick minds of the protagonists. The images of fog, mist and air

reflect their inner confusion, and frustration. There are some significant

images of light and darkness evocative of the mood of the novel and

the prey - predator images suggestive of the victimization of the weak,

besides images of birds, caged animals and colour. Many of these are

deeply symbolic. The imagery lends vividness and sensuousness to Desai's

narrative and helps her give concreteness to her vision.

Desai's masterful manipulation of different linguistic devices, her

remarkable command of the language, especially her use of lndianism

to capture the nuances of Indian idiom play a significant role in the

architectonics of this novel These enable her to present her themes

and project her vision artistically as well as convincingly .

Anita Desai's third novel, Bye-Bye Blackbird deals chiefly with the

theme of East-West encounter as revealed in the lives of Indian emigrants

to Britain. Most critics feel Desai has not done justice to the tremendous

potential this theme has. Desai herself has said in an interview with
 11

Jasbir Jain that this is one of the books she would like to disown (Stairs

to the Attic, 12-13). However, this book contains some lively portrayals

of English and Indian characters and wonderful evocative descriptions

of the English countryside.

Here also Desai touches upon her pet themes of alienation and

loneliness while exploring the love- hate relationship the coloured

immigrants have towards Britain. The novel focuses the predicament

of Dev, Adit and Sarah: their dilemmas, their problems of adjustment

in the face of racial hatred, their alienation, and their miseries. But

compared to the earlier two novels here the treatment is in a much

lighter vein. Desai does not exploit the tragic potential to its logical

conclusion.

The novel, split up in three parts, "Arrival", "Discovery and

Recognition" and " Departure," tells the tale of two Bengali youths, Dev

and Adit Sen, and Adit's English wife Sarah. Dev, a new immigrant

comes to London for higher studies and stays with Adit and Sarah.

In the beginning Dev is piqued to find the contemptuous treatment meted

out to the coloured immigrants by the English both in private and public

places. Angered by the humiliations heaped on them, he wants to return

home. However, as the story progresses he gradually sheds his

Anglophobia and is drawn irresistibly to the charms of England. On

the other hand, Adit who was comfortably settled in England with his

wife Sarah at the beginning, develops an intense homesickness for India.

In Part Three, the sudden outbreak of an lndo-Pak war arouses his

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dormant patriotism and provides him with an immediate pretext to return

to India. Vl/hile Dev decides to stay on in England, Adit and Sarah leave

for India at the end.

Sarah is a typical Anita Desai heroine-complex, sensitive and

intelligent, suffering intensely from alienation and loneliness. She faces

social alienation in her native land for marrying an Indian and she faces

the prospect of another kind of alienation-cultural alienation-in the

land of her husband. It is a pity that Anita Desai does not fully exploit

the tragic dimensions of her character. The plight of the coloured

immigrants in England, the daily conflicts of a mixed marriage and the

crisis of identity they suffer from are only superficially touched upon.

The heavy brooding atmosphere of the early two novels is cheered

up by a colourful world in this novel. Imagery is relatively sparse here,

but not entirely without significance. Sarah's psychic turmoil and her

alienation from the English society are expressed through appropriate

imagery. A profusion of synaesthetic and nature images brings out the

superb beauty of the English rural and urban scenes, as if in justification

of Dev's fascination for them. There are many other striking images

that concretise the attitudes and feelings of the characters.

The third-person omniscient narrator shows and tells us all about

the experiences of the Indian immigrants. It is a simple straight-forward

narration without any complexity. The technique of contrast is effectively

used to distinguish the characters as well as to show their different

attitudes and feelings. The language used here is perfectly in keeping

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with the mood and theme of the novel. Desai's use of alliteration, repetition

and onomatopoeic words lend an enchanting rhythm to her language.

She uses more Indian words in this novel than she did in the earlier

novels. These help her catch the exact nuances of the Indian idiom

which the Indian immigrants cannot give up even in the alien land.

Anita Desai's fourth novel, Where Shall We Go This Summer ? is

a wonderful poetic tour de force singularised by her intense lyrical fervour

and poetic imagination. Here she probes the questions of meaningless-

ness through the absorbing story of Sita, the unusually sensitive and

emotional wife of the practical-minded Raman. Here also Desai is

concerned with her pet themes of marital discord, loneliness, alienation,

conformity and non-conformity, illusion and disillusionment as well as

other kindred themes such as violence, victimization and death which

often obsess an alienated individual.

The tale weaves around Sita's growing boredom and impatience with

her humdrum life in Bombay. The middle - aged heroine is already the

mother of four growing children and is expecting her fifth child. The

all-pervasive violence she sees in the society, the meaningless domestic

traditions and sham respectabilities that she has to bear with as a

house-wife, her temperamental incompatibility with her husband and kin,

all these oppress and weary her sensitive soul. She experiences a profound

sense of ennui, so much so that she grows hysterical and neurotic.

She is possessed by an insane desire to keep her unborn child safe

within her womb away form the violent and meaningless world. Driven
 14

by this desire she escapes into the mag1c island of Manari seeking

to find a miraculous solution to her predicament. But she goes there

only to be disillusioned. When she realises there is no magic left in

the island capable of sustaining her in trouble, she makes a reluctant

compromise and returns to Bombay to resume her routine life accepting

all its limitations.

The novel is structurally akin to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse

in that both trace the flux of the heroine's consciousness through three

successive stages of perception, memory and dream. The three parts

of this novel are well-defined in terms of time: Part One/ Monsoon '

67 deals with the present and immediate past of Sita, Part Two/ Winter

' '4 7 with her remote past and Part Three I Monsoon ' 67 with her

present and near future. From the present Sita travels twenty years

back to her remote past. There after the thesis and antithesis have

confronted each other in the inner theatre of her consciousness and

necessary revaluations have been made, she returns back in the present

to forge thE~ dialectical synthesis.

Anita Desai very skilfully uses fantasy, flashback, images, symbols

and quotations from poems as narrative techniques in this novel to project

her vision. Desai's use of various types of lexical items and syntactic

devices enables her to evoke appropriate moods and feelings.

Occasionally she employs Indian words such as "chela", "bhajan", "Iota"

to capture the exact nuances of these words and lend local colour to

her narrative.
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Desai's fifth novel, Fire on the Mountain delineates almost with the

pace of a Greek tragedy the profound alienation of Nanda Kaul and

her pathetic need of creating a world of make-believe to maintain her

sense of self-respect. In this novel too marital discord, loneliness,

withdrawal, isolation and violence are the central themes. Nanda Kaul,

her great grand-daughter Raka, and Nanda's old friend lla Das are

the central characters. They suffer from isolation and alienation in varying

degrees and for different reasons. Although in close physical proximity,

they live in their separate lonelinesses making but feeble and vain attempts

to establish bridgeheads of understanding.

The novel, divided into three parts, at first shows Nanda Kaul living

a secluded and solitary life at Kasauli, a Himalayan hill-station free

from all responsibilities and involvements. The sudden arrival of Raka,

her strange, secretive, convalescent great grand-daughter, shatters her

jealously-guarded privacy. Nanda's initial aversion towards Raka soon

turns into £1enuine interest in her when she finds her to be "the finished,

perfected model" (47) of what she herself aspired to be. Raka is a

"recluse by nature, by instinct", as opposed to Nanda, "a recluse out

of vengeance" for a long meaningless life of duty and obligation (48).

lla Das, an aged spinster, suggests another dimension of misery and

meaningless existence. Her brutual murder and rape at the end shatters

Nanda's world of make-believe and she dies of shock. The destruction

of Nanda's fabricated world of pretences is symbolically suggested by

the forest fire ignited by Raka. The theme of marital discord is highlighted
 16

by the loveless and alienated relationship between Nanda and her husband

as well as by the bitter relationship between Raka's parents. Indeed

there seems to be no escape from the futility of existence in Desai's

fictional world. The supreme irony is that Nanda with all her children,

granc}-{:;hildren and great grandchildren, and the unmarried lla Das equally

feel utterly lonely.

The novel is a triumph of structure. Desai's mastery in the use of

images and symbols, her lucid and poetic prose, and her remarkable

use of various linguistic devices combine to make this novel an integrated

artistic whole. She makes brilliant use of memory and fantasy to recreate

the past and glorify it for thematic purposes. The narration is mainly

in the third-person. The omniscient narrator shows more than she tells.

The settin,g seems to be in perfect tune with the condition of the

protagonists all the time.

Anita Desai's sixth novel, Clear Light of Day is chiefly concerned

with the theme of time as both the destroyer and the preserver. It is

about what the bondage of time does to people. It is also about guilt

and anger, alienation and loneliness. The novel is divided into four parts,

each deanng with a distinct period in the lives of the principal characters.

The shift from the present to the past and back in the narrative helps

to create the appropriate mood of nostalgia.

The novel begins with Tara's visit to her family home, rich with childhood

memories in Old Delhi and ends with her departure. This short span

of actual time embraces life-times, deaths, growth and disillusion. It

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describes the stirring of the putrid drain of the unconscious, the sudden

insights and the nameless regrets.

Tara's homecoming triggers off in her elder sister Bim all the bitter

memories of the past. Together the two sisters traverse the road of

anger, guilt, fear and remorse giving us vignettes of their childhood,

their feckless) bridge-playing parents, their two brothers-the elder Raja,

a self-centn~d romantic with poetic pretensions, and the younger Saba,

a helpless moron. The novel ends in forgiveness of treacheries and

betrayals. Bim is able to purge herself of her grievance against Tara

and, especially Raja, who escape family responsibilities leaving Bim

alone saddled with the responsibility of looking after the autistic Baba

and the alcoholic Aunt Mira. She forgives them when in the clear light

of her new--found wisdom she perceives their limitations and rediscovers

her love for them.

The entire tale of the Das family is thus unfolded through the stream

of consciousness of Tara and Bim. The delineation of their present lives

gives it a sort of completeness. The novel teems with suggestive scenes,

characters, episodes, symbols and images. The house imagery is central

to the theme and point of view of the novel. It reflects both the physical

and mental states of the characters, vivifies their moods, and evokes

the right atmosphere of neglect, decay and death that accounted for

much of the confusion and misunderstanding among the siblings.

The novel is remarkable for Desai's masterly use of memory and

mind time. The mind time and the clock time are depicted side by side
 18

much as in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Epigraphs, short sections,

poetic echoes and quotations help orchestrate the music of time and

memories. Desai's language is poetic, charged with feeling and richly

strewn with revealing metaphors. Her images are all at once wedded

to her rich lyricism and integral to her vision.

Desai's seventh novel, In Custody is chiefly concerned with the themes

of quest for a meaningful existence, alienation, disillusionment and art/

life dichotomy. The story is woven around Deven Sharma, an

impoverished temporary lecturer in a private college in an obscure town

near Delhi. He feels suffocated by the meaninglessness and monotonous

mediocrity of life, having neither respect nor consideration from

colleagues, students and neighbours. His friend Murad lures him on

to make it big by interviewing his idol Nur, the greatest living Urdu

poet. The credulous and disingenuous protagonist is swayed by the

idea of creating a work of his lifetime but is unfortunately defeated

by his own helplessness. In the course of this increasingly crazy project

he is gulled, humiliated and tormented by everyone, even by the poet

Nur himself, who turns out to be a greedy, dissolute wreck, wallowing

in sensuality.

The narrative shifts between Deven's success and failure, hopes and

frustrations, illusions and disillusionment until at the end he finds strength

within himself to face the challenges of life. Equipped with a new vision,

he understands the symbiotic relation between art and life, and accepts

the responsibility of becoming the custodian of Nur's poetry. Thus despite

 19

the loss of his dreams, he earns a definitive self-respect at the end.

This novel also treats the theme of husband-wife alienation: at one

level between Deven and his wife, and at another between Nur and

his wives. Desai's use of fantasy, contrast and poetry as narrative tehniques

deserves consideration. The novel has an open ending. This leaves

the reader free to conjecture about Deven's future which is uncertainly

poised at the end. The imagery is rather sparse but as effective as

ever. Deven's prosaic, dull life as well as his mediocrity, gullibility,

bewilderment and dejection is adequately brought out. The imagery of

prison which dominates the novel expresses his obsessive desire to

escape from the harsh reality. The images of animals, birds and colour

on the other hand evoke the pervading atmosphere of gloom and despair.

Desai's use of nature and landscape to objectify the feelings of the

characters is remarkable. The language is not as poetic as in some

of her other novels. This is in keeping with the prosaic life of Deven

and the dull, heavy atmosphere of the novel. The use of Indian words

and idiom, and different linguistic devices helps her create the

appropriate local colour in consonance with the demands of the themes,

and lend authenticity to her narration. Mirpore, for example, brilliantly

evokes the picture of a small Indian town and acts as an appropriate

setting for Cleven's miserable life of mediocrity.

In Anita Desai's eighth novel, Baumgartner's Bombay, the focus is

on racial alienation. Desai captures with precision the profound pathos

of the state of 'never-belonging' of Hugo Baumgartner, a German Jew

 20

who remains a firanghi, a foreigner, wherever he goes. Forced to flee

his native land following the rise of violent anti-Semitic feelings in Hitler's

reign, he comes to India but remains an outsider all his life. Lotte,

is another victim of racial alienation in India. The theme of loneliness

and alienation is consistently developed.

The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Second World War.

The novel be!~ins and ends with the murder of Baumgartner following

a cyclical pattern of narration. The third-person narrator gives a touching

account of Baumgartner's tragic life. The past is projected through a

prism of memories. The technique of flashback is deftly used to illuminate

Hugo's childhood. There are several German songs and poems used

in the novel to vivify the German setting of Hugo's past.

The novel leaves one breathless with the powerful imagery Desai

employs to create the right atmosphere. The overpowering presence

of the images of theatre and prison reflect the unreality of Baumgartner's

existence as well as his hopeless predicament. His obsession with death.

violence and victimization finds expression through corresponding images.

At linguistic level, the novel effectively transcribes different varieties

of English as spoken by the Indians and the British; certain Hindi words

are also used to give realistic touches to the novel.

Anita Desai's ninth novel, Journey to Ithaca marks a departure from

the Desai canon in more ways than one. It is not as much concerned

with inadequacies of interpersonal relationship or quest for an authentic

existence in a hostile world as some of her previous novels. Here for

 21

the first time Desai deals with a theme that may be called spiritual.

This novel may be described as a story of multiple journeys undertaken

by the three protagonists who are like pilgrims. Desai examines the nature

of their pilgrimage through their aspirations and adventures. At the same

time she explores the ambiguous nature of divine and profane love.

Matteo, the only child of a well-to-do Italian, undertakes a journey to

India for spiritual fulfilment. Sophie, Matteo's wife, follows him inspired

by a spirit of excursion and adventure. To her, fulfilment lies in earthly

love. The novel also unfolds the Mother's story-her Egyptian childhood,

her joining an Indian dance troupe in Paris and her arrival in India

via Venice and New York in search of spiritual turth. Her story comments

on and gives added breath to the young couple's pilgrimage.

The journey to India is like a journey to one's spiritual home for

each of these voyagers. In this sense India is their Ithaca. Ithaca, which

was the mythical homeland of Odysseus in the Ionian Sea, stirs

associations of a long-lost home, the tired sojourner's yearning for it,

as well as the joy of home-coming at last. In Desai's novel Ithaca

symbolises the spiritual home of a long-wandering, long-suffering searching

soul. It is the Soul's Abode. It stands for Truth and Light. The epigraph

at the beginning from Cavafy's poem, "lthaca"(translated by the Rae

Dalven) clearly spells out the symbolic significance of Ithaca. In this

novel India and Ithaca are synonymous.

The three pilgrims to India encounter different hellish experiences

on the way, overcome ~~.ls~~oo_d .a~d' u~ti~~t~ they all acquire spiritual

r--r~-.- ,~.~~.
'. ~---~3\\~.
 22

wisdom. Their quests end in enlightenment. The Mother undertakes a

long, impassioned and painful journey from Egypt to India. She

experiences betrayal, unlove, disillusionment and terrible heartsickness

before she finds her true master and attains spiritual bliss.

Matteo encounters a number of fake yogis, visits many gurus and

ashrams, suffers ridiculous delusions before he finds peace, joy and

contentment under spiritual guidance of the Mother. Sophie's journey

turns out to b1e a journey from materialism to spiritualism, from the sceptical

rationalism of the West to an enraptured mysticism of the East. Her

quest for the Mother's past ends in her discovery of self-knowledge.

The novel also touches upon minor themes such as alienation, husband-

wife incompatibility, religious orthodoxies, illusions and disillusionment,

and the like.

In tune with the vision projected and in correspondence with the

demands of the theme, Desai employs here a relaxed, non-linear narration.

The third-person omniscient narrator gradually unfolds before us the

story of mulltiple journeys. Desai uses the flash-back technique with

remarkable skill to focus the past. There is a fine balance between

the past and the present, and also a fine blend of 'showing' and 'telling'.

There is a playful crisscrossing of different segments of time. Compared

to Desai's other novels, it seems rather unlyrical and unimpassioned.

The style is almost bare. The treatment has been determined by the

quality of the vision. The use of images and symbols concretizes the

experienes described and helps us to understand them better. Desai's

 23

use of Indian words and phrases, names and myths, as well as the

vivid description of Indian scenes enable her to recapture the mystique

of India convincingly.

Fasting, Feasting (1999), is Anita Desai's latest novel to date. In

keeping with the trends shown in her last few novels, here also Desai

is concerned more with social reality than with the exploration of the

psyche. But in this novel also she touches upon the themes of alienation,

victimization of the weak, plight of women in a patriarchal society, and

the like. As the title suggests, the novel is concerned with "fasting"

and "feastin~t both in literal and metaphorical sense.

The novel describes an old divide-" East" and "West". But the

East-West encounter has been given a new twist. As in Bye-Bye Blackbird

here Desai is not interested in dealing with the problems of the coloured

Asians in the West. Here she contrasts the life-styles and values of

the Indians and the Americans by focusing on two families-one in India

and another in America. She cuts right to the heart of family life in

two contrasting cultures.

The novel! is divided into two parts. The first part is set in a small

town in north India. Uma is the plain older daughter of a traditional

Hindu family dominated by her over-bearing, godlike parents. She is

withdrawn from school to look after her baby brother who, though a

product of inadvertence of her middle-aged parents, is the apple of

their eye. They spare no pains to bring up this male child in the best

possible manner. Human males enjoy special status in this family, as

 24

indeed in much of the traditional Indian society at large.

The girl child is however not so lucky. Uma is most shabbily treated

after she is unsucessfully married off twice. Withered now in her middle

age, she has been virtually relegated to the role of a glorified maid

servant serving her parents , fetching and carrying for them all day.

She is an Indian version of Fanny Price, Jane Austen's heroine in Mansfield

Park-the passive and charmless dependent whose position is really

that of a servant.

Uma has experienced only deprivation and seclusion in life. Barred

from workin~] outside, discouraged from socializing, she is virtually a

prisoner in her own home. She feels smothered under the weight of

duties and traditions. Cousin Ramu, the blacksheep of the family, once

manages to sneak her out to her only dinner at a hotel.

Though Uma's attractive and ambitious younger sister Aruna manages

to bring off a good marriage, the other women in the novel are not

lucky. They are all victims of a male dominated society. Uma's exquisitely

beautiful cousin Anamika experiences brutal treatment at the hand of

her wicked mother-in-law before she has to die. Mira Masi, her widowed

aunt who travels the country on pilgrimages after her aged husband's

death is marginalised by her family members. Uma's mother is of course

happy to surrender her identity at the altar of her father who rules the

family like a demi-god. The lot of the Indian women is indeed a harsh

one in this novel. She has to be ever the dutiful figure on the sacrificial

block.
 25

In the second part, the narrative shifts from the hub of this

close-knit, tradition-bound Indian household to the cool centre of an

American family wallowing in luxury and self-indulgence. Arun, the

privileged brother of Uma, goes to Massachussets for higher studies

and lodges with the Patton family during the summer break. He is

bewildered and repelled by the eating habits of the Pattons. Mrs Patton

makes too many trips to the supermarket and packs her fridge before

it is half-emptied. Melanie her teenage daughter, gorges herself on

chocolates only to throw them up secretly. Mr Patton and his son Ron

seem to have no other serious occupation except charring hunks of

meat and feasting on the bar-be-cues. The Patton house seems to be

surfeited with food. There is also too much waste of food here.

Through the technique of contrast Desai builds up images of two

worlds, in every sense poles apart. Melanie who is cloyed with rich

food is obviously intended to be a foil for Uma who hardly gets to eat

any delicacies. While Melanie "feasts", Uma obviously "fasts". Uma is

shackled by traditions and obligations but Melanie is free as a bird.

These contrasts are, however, merely superficial. Deep down, they are

both famished. Fasting and feasting, as Arun learns, are merely the

two sides of the same coin.

Melanie who becomes bulimic 1s at bottom as unhappy and lonely

as Uma. The Patton family has its own kind of malfunction. The cultures

of both India and America, fasting and feasting, Desai seems to suggest,

make silent victims of their women. There is communication gap in both

 26

the worlds. Irrespective of whether they fast or feast, the individuals,

especially the women, remain famished within. There is nothing to assuage

their spiritual hunger for a meaningful,harmonious existence in this world.

Desai uses chiefly the third-person omniscient narrator to project her

themes. She does not resort to simple linear narration. The past and

the present are juxtaposed adroitly to build up her vision. The narration

flits back and forth in time illuminating the past and present of Mama

and Papa- their tradition and culture, beliefs and attitudes. The imagery

is not as dense here as in Desai's early novels but it is enough to

enable Desai present her themes and project her vision appropriately.